The CEO's Rose Chapter 107: Box

Ryan’s POV

In all of his years, Ryan had never picked up after himself.

Why would he, when he had employees to do that for him?

Now in a strange turn of events, Ryan found himself picking up clothing and other items and putting them away as carefully as he could. The thing that would have made the whole activity funny, if it weren’t so depressing, was the fact that not a single one of the items that he picked up belonged to him.

They all belonged to one woman... Vivian Rose.

Most of it was underwear. Vivian’s bras and panties, as well as so of her sexy lingerie, had found themselves being left behind at Ryan’s place. But it was not just that, sohow she’d left behind glitter pens, pencils, and the occasional hairpin.

One by one he picked up those items and placed them in a box.

It would have been easier to have his housekeeper be the one to gather everything, and put it away.

But even with the way that things between them had ended. Ryan found that the thought of soone else touching Vivian’s things, did not sit well with him. So he was personally clearing everything up.

Whether once it was all done, he would have the things delivered to Vivian’s door. Or he’d toss them into the trash he had no idea.

But what he did know for certain was that picking up each item hurt. It was a type of pain that pierced his heart anew. With every object that found its way into the box, it felt like Vivian was telling him ’no’ all over again. Everything that he held was not rely just an object.

All of it was mories.

He held her bra in his hands, and he rembered the mont that he had taken it off Vivian with just one hand. So eager to free her breasts that his fingers had achieved such a monuntal feat in record ti.

He held up a piece of lacy lingerie and he recalled how good it had looked on Vivian’s body just seconds before he had torn it away.

He picked up a little pen, and was instantly assaulted by mories of watching Vivian making cards for each and every one of her students. Taking the ti to add little drawings right next to the nas of the students. It had been hard work, but she had smiled the entire ti, and had held each card like it was worth millions.

Gathering up her forgotten scrunchies had Ryan being assaulted by mories of how wonderful it had been to pull them from her hair and watch it fall around her shoulders.

He now knew that Vivian had been playing him even then.

Holding her things should have just filled him with rage and made him want to destroy them.

But Ryan found that he could not even bring himself to think badly of them, let alone handle them roughly.

Vivian might have been playing with him. But he had been sincere in his every act.

He had cherished all of those mories that they’d made, and even now that the awful truth had been revealed, his heart still could not bring itself to just throw all of that away.

And so, instead of tossing everything aside like it was useless trash, Ryan found himself gathering all of her things until they were safely stored away in the box.

***

For months Ryan had slept with Vivian Rose.

He had gotten so used to her presence that the walls of his penthouse now seed to echo hollowly, all because he could no longer hear her laughter within them. It was ridiculous she had not been around that long. He should not have been feeling her absence so strongly, but he was.

The loneliness and sadness that he now felt in the penthouse had gotten so overwhelming at one point that Ryan had been seriously considering leaving.

It would have been so easy too.

He had multiple properties across the city. All he had to do was choose one, and it would be his new ho. But in the end Ryan had decided not to do that. A stubborn part of him refusing to let a woman who had not cared about him chase him out of a place that he had lived in for years.

Now with all of her things packed, and the box that contained them closed, Ryan’s stared down at the cardboard in his hands. Once again the thought of destroying it ca to him.

But as quickly as it ca, his mind shut it down.

He had been sleeping with Vivian and slowly developing feelings for her. She in return had only been toying with him until the mont ca for her to break his heart. It was not fair, she had taken a big chunk of him and had torn it apart.

The least that he deserved was a few of her things to at least be able to console himself by saying that he had not left the relationship empty handed.

It was ridiculous. What use did he have with a woman’s underwear and a few of her knick-knacks?

But as he made his way to his walk-in closet and gently placed Vivian’s belongings on a shelf.

A part of Ryan was soothed to see them there.

So what if she had taken his heart and trampled on it?

He had so of her things as well.

Deep down Ryan knew that it was pitiful and small of him to rejoice over having ownership of such useless things that were easily replaceable.

But it did not take away from the small part in him that was glad to have just a little bit of sothing that belonged to Vivian Rose.

A big part of him wished that he had her heart. But he knee that he would have to be satisfied with just a few belongings that she would not even miss.